Cordell Hull Biography Quotes 10 Report mistakes

Early Life and Education
Cordell Hull was born in 1871 in rural Tennessee and came of age in a region defined by small farms, self-reliance, and the lingering upheavals of the post, Civil War South. He studied in local schools and pursued law with determination, attending Cumberland University and gaining admission to the bar in the early 1890s. The formative experiences of tending to everyday legal and civic concerns in small-town Tennessee shaped his belief that orderly rules, fair processes, and economic opportunity were the foundations of both prosperity and peace. He developed a plainspoken, methodical style and a deep interest in fiscal policy and trade that would guide his public career.

Entry into Politics
Hull entered public life in Tennessee at a young age, serving in the state legislature before moving into the judiciary as a district judge. His temperament favored steady, incremental reform, and his ambition was directed toward national policy. Elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1907, he became a mainstay of Democratic leadership for decades. On the House Ways and Means Committee, he argued that an equitable income tax and lower tariffs were essential both to social fairness and to broader prosperity. He was closely associated with the push that followed ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment and is often credited with formative work on the structure of the modern federal income tax. After the political upheaval of 1920, he became chairman of the Democratic National Committee and helped rebuild his party's organization before returning to the House and later winning a seat in the United States Senate.

Philosophy of Trade and Peace
Hull's central conviction was that economic barriers fuel political hostility. He viewed sharply protectionist tariffs as engines of suspicion and retaliation. The wave of tariff hikes culminating in the Smoot-Hawley Act, championed by Reed Smoot and Willis C. Hawley and signed by President Herbert Hoover, reinforced his determination to reverse course. Hull became the leading congressional and later executive advocate for reciprocal trade agreements that would reduce duties and expand markets, a strategy he believed would knit countries together and reduce the risk of conflict. He combined a lawyer's respect for rules with a merchant's sense of mutual advantage, setting the intellectual foundation for mid-century trade liberalization.

Secretary of State under Franklin D. Roosevelt
Selected by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 to serve as Secretary of State, Hull quickly emerged as a principal architect of the administration's international economic policy. Working closely with Roosevelt, he secured passage of the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act of 1934, which authorized the executive branch to negotiate tariff reductions on a bilateral basis. With Under Secretary Sumner Welles and Assistant Secretary Adolf A. Berle Jr. among his key lieutenants, Hull converted his long-held ideas into a continuous program of agreements that linked commerce to stability.

He also gave diplomatic form to the Good Neighbor Policy. At inter-American gatherings in the 1930s, the United States renounced armed intervention, supported the withdrawal of Marines from the Caribbean, and promoted legal commitments of noninterference. Hull cultivated respect and goodwill across Latin America, viewing hemispheric cooperation as both a moral obligation and a strategic necessity in a turbulent world.

Confronting Authoritarianism and War
As the 1930s darkened, Hull navigated the tension between American neutrality laws and the urgent need to oppose aggressive regimes. He supported steps that would allow aid to victims of aggression while keeping the country out of direct conflict for as long as possible. He coordinated with the British government under Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden as the Axis threat intensified, working within the administration's broader framework that included Lend-Lease and economic measures.

Relations with Japan tested Hull's patience and resolve. Negotiations with the Japanese ambassadors Kichisaburo Nomura and Saburo Kurusu culminated in late November 1941 when the United States presented terms that demanded withdrawal from conquered territories. When news of the attack on Pearl Harbor reached Washington, Hull reacted with controlled fury during his meeting with the envoys, and the country moved from fraught diplomacy to global war.

The United Nations and the Postwar Vision
Even amid the war's demands, Hull pursued the idea of a permanent international organization that would replace the failed mechanisms of the interwar years. He worked with Roosevelt and with counterparts in London, Moscow, and Chungking to sketch the contours of a new system grounded in sovereign equality, collective security, and practical cooperation. The conversations and planning efforts that culminated in the Dumbarton Oaks proposals bore the imprint of his patient diplomacy and legal craftsmanship. Ill health forced him to resign in 1944, and Edward R. Stettinius Jr. succeeded him, guiding the American delegation at San Francisco the following year. But the architecture of the United Nations reflected Hull's long campaign for rules-based order, and the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to him in 1945 recognized that achievement. Eleanor Roosevelt's subsequent leadership in human rights at the UN further advanced the moral aspirations Hull had hoped such an institution could serve.

Leadership Style and Working Relationships
Hull's method was cautious and document-driven. He prized written understandings and multilateral conventions over improvisation. Within the administration, he sometimes differed with colleagues in other departments over tactics, particularly on economic warfare and the tempo of public commitments, yet he retained the confidence of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who valued Hull's steadiness and international credibility. Sumner Welles often served as his operational partner in complex negotiations, while figures like Adolf A. Berle Jr. brought expertise on finance and economic statecraft. Across the Atlantic, consistent contact with Churchill's circle and other Allied leaders ensured that military strategy and political goals reinforced each other.

Later Years and Legacy
After stepping down as Secretary of State, Hull continued to advise on postwar arrangements and reflected on the lessons of a lifetime in public service, including in his memoirs. He remained identified with three interlocking legacies: the modernization of American fiscal policy, the transformation of U.S. trade law through the reciprocal agreements program, and the establishment of an international organization meant to secure peace. He died in 1955, having lived to see the United Nations take root and the web of trade agreements he championed begin to expand across regions and sectors.

Cordell Hull's career traced a path from a Tennessee courtroom to the center of world diplomacy. He believed that prosperity and peace required rules that were fair, reciprocal, and enforceable, and that diplomacy worked best when grounded in the patient accumulation of trust. In partnership with Franklin D. Roosevelt and alongside colleagues such as Sumner Welles, Adolf A. Berle Jr., and Edward R. Stettinius Jr., he helped steer the United States through depression and war while laying foundations for a more cooperative international order. His enduring reputation as a builder of institutions and a steadfast public servant rests on the idea that open markets, legal commitments, and shared security can stabilize a restless world.

Our collection contains 10 quotes who is written by Cordell, under the main topics: Wisdom - Leadership - Peace - War - Gratitude.

Other people realated to Cordell: Josephus Daniels (Politician), John McCarthy (Politician), Harry Hopkins (Diplomat), Lord Halifax (Politician), Tojo Hideki (Statesman)